Faceless Killers, by Henning Mankell
Filed under: Henning Mankell, International bestseller, Kurt Wallander, Swedish writer, book review, crime book, recommendation
An aging farmer and his wife have been attacked on their isolated farm. When Inspector Kurt Wallander arrives, he finds the elderly couple brutally tortured, the husband dead and the wife barely clinging to life, They appear to have little money and no enemies. The only clue is the dying word of the farmer’s wife: “foreign”.
That is where the plot starts in 
Henning Mankell’s first Kurt Wallander detective mystery: Faceless Killers. The result is a well-done, intense and enjoyable police procedural..
Since Faceless Killers is the first book in a series, the reader is provided with some background information on the main characters. Kurt Wallander is gritty and determined, newly separated from his wife and somewhat estranged from his daughter. He often drinks too much, and he has problems dealing with the interim prosecutor, who is an attractive young woman sent down from Stockholm. Also, he has a somewhat strange relationship to his father, an ageing artist, who is showing the first signs of senility. As well, he is a little grumpy at times.
In Faceless Killers, Mankell lets the reader join in on the investigation process. There are no hidden clues as in Agatha Christie’s books. It is all hard work, sweat and reasoning.
With a keen sense of the psychological dimensions of his characters, Henning Mankell delivers a fast paced, very interesting and highly entertaining read in Faceless Killers.
You can read more reviews of Henning Mankell’s books at ScandinavianBooks.com.
Order Faceless Killers from amazon UK: Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallender Mystery)
Hollywood station, by Joseph Wambaugh
Filed under: Joseph Wambaugh, book review, crime book
Wambaugh is a former LAPD detective sergeant, and a terrific and funny writer of crime novels:
Hollywood station is about the LAPD, and a 
They are: Budgie Polk, a 27-year-old firecracker whos begrudgingly teamed with Fausto Gamboa, the oldest, tetchiest patrol officer. Andi McCrea, a single mom who spends her days studying at the local community college. Wesley Drubb, a USC drop-out who joined the force to see some action. Flotsam and Jetsam, two aptly named surfer boys who pine after the petitebut intrepid Meg Takara. And Hank Driscoll, the one who never shuts up.
Together they spend their days and nights in the city’s underbelly, where a string of seemingly unrelated events lures the cops of Hollywood Station to their most startling case yet: Russians, diamonds, counterfeiting. Nothing is too horrific or twisted for Los Angeles. Here, its business as usual.
Hollywood Station is a wonderful, exciting and amusing read!
Other great books by Wambaugh at amazon US: Hollywood Crows: A Novel
Sphere, by Michael Crichton
Filed under: International bestseller, Michael Crichton, Thriller, book review, recommendation, technothriller
Filmed in 1998: Sphere
Michael Crichton, now sadly dead, was one of the greatest thriller writers of our time. He was one of my favorite authors. In Sphere Crichton rolled out the present, past, and future into a highly technical and confusing science fiction adventure. The present features, among others, a pompous astrophysicist, a female zoologist, a black mathematician, and a 53-year-old psychologist, who are summoned by the Navy to examine a plane crash 
The past is manifested in the stranded object resting on the sea bottom where it has been for some 300 years. When the four scientists, who carry their emotional minority baggage of sex, color, and age along with them, descend to the deep in their submersible, they discover the wreck to be no less than a spaceship from the future that fell through a black hole, thus defying time and space. At the bottom of the sea, strange things begin to happen, and one by one the cast of characters diminishes.
Sphere is very fast paced and very exciting. The plot is part of the future unfolding. You never know what is going to happen next and you can’t stop until you do. Crichton, in my opinion, develops his characters better in this novel than in any of his other books. One of Crichton’s best! Strongly recommended!
, see also Timeline
, and State of Fear.
Alternatively, you can order from amazon UK: Sphere
, Timeline
, and State of Fear.
Dreamers, by Knut Hamsun
Filed under: Fiction, Knut Hamsun, Nobel Prize Winner, Norwegian writer, book review
Dreamers is a short and somewhat light 
novel by the Norwegian Nobel Prize winning author Knut Hamsun. Set in an isolated Norwegian fishing village, the novel is a romantic comedy, centering on Ove Rolandsen, who is an aspiring inventor.
Rolandsen is a schemer, a liar, and a not particularly effective womanizer. Rolandsen is engaged to the local parson’s housekeeper, yet he has eyes for both the local sexton’s daughter and for the daughter of Trader Mack, the town’s most prosperous businessman.
Rolandsen has invented a new process for manufacturing fish-glue, the commodity which is the main source of Trader Mack’s wealth; yet Rolandsen, who works as a telegraph operator, lacks sufficient funds to get his invention out into the world. Thus the tale becomes one of money and power, as well as, of course, of love and lust.
In Dreamers, Hamsun handles his plot with a light and assured touch, and the novel is charming. However, Dreamers 
Other interesting books by Knut Hamsun at amazon US include: Hunger
See also the bibliography of Knut Hamsun at Leserglede.com.
When the Devil Holds the Candle, by Karin Fossum
Filed under: Inspector Konrad Sejer, Karin Fossum, Main character, Norwegian writer, book review, crime book, recommendation
When the Devil Holds the Candle, by the Norwegian author Karin Fossum, won the Gumshoe award for best European crime novel published in the US in 2007.
When called in to investigate the crime, Inspector Konrad Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre see no connection between the infant’s death and the reported disappearance of a local delinquent. And so, while the confusion in the world outside mounts, the chilling truth unfolds inside the old woman’s home.
Unflappable as ever, Sejer digs below the surface of small-town tranquility in an effort to understand how and why violence destroys everyday lives.
When the Devil Holds the Candle is another brilliantly observed, precisely rendered psychological mystery from the highly acclaimed Karin Fossum, where she creates intensity by problematizing the roles of murderer and victim. A wonderful story by Fossum!
, or her Black Seconds (Inspector Sejer Mysteries)
.
Or, if you prefer amazon UK, you can order Karin Fossums books When the Devil Holds the Candle (Inspector Sejer Mystery)
Top 10 hardbacks in UK, November 9, 2008
Filed under: Bernard Cornwell, Fiction, International bestseller, Michael Connelly, book news, crime book, historical fiction
(The Sunday Times Bestseller List)
| 1 | The Business by Martina Cole | Drugs, prostitution and a young girl’s fight for survival |
| 2 | The Gift by Cecelia Ahern | Enchanting Christmas story from the author of PS, I Love You |
| 3 | Cross Country by James Patterson | Alex Cross embarks on a personal crusade when a friend is murdered |
| 4 | The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga | Man Booker-winning tale of a poor man corrupted by Delhi’s glamour |
| 5 | Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell | Dramatic depiction of the famous battle of Agincourt |
| 6 | Brute Force by Andy McNab | Nick Stone cheats death once again in his 11th high-octane adventure |
| 7 | Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy | Heartwarming tale revolving around a community clinic in Ireland |
| 8 | A Good Woman by Danielle Steel | Woman triumphs after her privileged world is shattered |
| 9 | The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly | Harry Bosch investigates the murder of a successful lawyer |
| 10 | Folly by Alan Titchmarsh | Loving couple uncover deceit when delving into their families’ shared past |
So this is what the English read this rainy Fall, in the midst of the international financial crisis. Lots of crime, some historical fiction, and some good fiction novels with great charm. Good books that provide something that hopefully counterbalances the bad news most of us are otherwise surrounded with.
Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell and The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly, are both high on my reading list. I would love somebody to review the rest of these great books for me! Just email it to me!
Ann Patchett: Run
Filed under: International bestseller, book review
Since their mother’s death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an
Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, Tip’s favorite hangout, to a home for retired Catholic priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you’ve never even met. I loved the book most of the time while reading it, and I loved the characters. Especially I loved little Kenye, the running girl.
As in her bestselling novel Bel Canto, Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories, each with surprising twists, into an endlessly moving narrative. It is a strange tale of odd coincidences, and suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.
A fabulous book!
Other books by this increadibly talented American writer available at amazon US: Bel Canto (P.S.)
Read what the New York Times book review writes about Run! Also, see the review of Bel Canto at World of Books.
The Faithful Wife, by Sigrid Undset
Filed under: Nobel Prize Winner, Norwegian writer, book review, recommendation
In The Faithful Wife, Sigrid Undset examines women’s relationship to professional life, to eroticism and childlessness. Nathalie is a modern woman of her time; she is liberated, 
has a good education and a leading position. She has been married to Sigurd for sixteen years, but they have no children. Nevertheless, their marriage has been happy and safe, Nathalie thinks. But while she is faithful, she finds out that her husband is not. What is wrong? What can she do?
In her works, Sigrid Undset, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, combines knowledge of history with psychological analysis and a powerful style. With this ‘domestic epic’, a sweeping drama set against a carefully studied social background, she broke a new ground. Undset turned away from the sentimental style of national romanticism, towards neo-realism. She wrote novels about women’s conditions which at the time when they were published were considered provocative and explicit.
The Faithful Wife was Sigrid Undset’s last contemporary novel, and it also bears witness to the age in which it was written – an inter-war period marked by rising Nazism and discussions about the value of human life. Sigrid Unset once again proves herself as a perceptive interpreter of the conditions and life’s of women as well as of this particular time period. To me, it was to some extent an eye-opener, but about women’s conditions at th time and about this moment in history.
The Faithful Wife is a wonderful book by one of the most talented Norwegian authors, and a book that raises fundamental questions that still are important to women, concerning the understanding of the nature of relationships between the sexes.
If you want to order at Amazon US you can use these links: Sigrid Undset’s The Faithful Wife
Liars & Thieves, by Stephen Coonts
Filed under: Fiction, International bestseller, Jake Grafton, Steven Coonts, Thriller, book review
(Published as Wages of Sin in the UK.) 
Tommy Carmellini is hanging out with partner Willie the Wire when ex-girlfriend Dorsey O’Shea turns up asking favors: will Tommy break into a house and retrieve some sex tapes in which she has unwittingly participated? This is not a problem for Tommy, he does it, hands the tapes over and dismisses Dorsey from his mind.
Tommy Carmellini, the main character in Liars & Thieves, is physically big, he’s very tough and doesn’t shun violence, and he doesn’t claim to be all that smart. Women seem to find him attractive and he beds them without much emotional involvement. In Liars & Thieves, I think the number is three.
Several months later, the CIA sends him to a West Virginia safe house where Russian defector Mikhail Goncharov is being debriefed. There, Tommy stumbles into a full-blown massacre. He kills a couple of attackers, rescues a woman, beats a retreat and quickly finds himself in spy hell: out in the cold, accused, alone, hunted by friend and foe alike.
The plot is good, maybe even great. It involves double-dealing all the way from the Kremlin to the West Wing of the White House. The story in Liars & Thieves is partly based on the real-life defection of Vasili Mitrokhin, the KGB archivist who arrived in Great Britain in 1992 with six suitcases of notes from classified KGB files! This is mixed with an American presidential nomination and a few other ingredients. It is an exciting cocktail. And, as the plot snowballs, it accumulates characters both good and bad.
Liars & Thieves is a good thriller. If you like Stephen Coonts, you will like the book. However, to my mind it is not among the best by Coonts (I consider his early Jake Grafton books to be his best). But a good read even so.
You can read reviews of the other two books in Stephen Coonts’ Tommy Carmellini-series at Leserglede.com.
or The Traitor (Tommy Carmellini, Book 2)
.Or, order the books in the Carmellini-series by Stephen Coonts from amazon UK: Liars & Thieves
, Traitor
, or The Assassin
. See also, the the same author, Flight of the Intruder (Jake Grafton Novels)
, The Minotaur
, and The Red Horseman
.The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth
Filed under: International bestseller, book review
The Day of the Jackal is a novel about whose main character is the 
Day Of The Jackal is at times a brutal book, unsparing in its detailing of government-directed torture, of casual murder, of the mass of luckless shadow people with their missing limbs. There is little humor, and no James Bond-ish glamor. It’s a book that forever changed the genre, from Fleming-ish humorous spy tales to real-life, no frills tough trillers.
The Day of the Jackal is very well written and very exciting classic in its genre. The intense style and suspense that sets Forsyth apart as a writer and master of the thriller genre is visible already here in this early book. Day of the Jackal is not just Frederick Forsyth’s best book; it’s the best book in it’s genre. An extremely worthwhile read! It is, quite simply, as good as it gets in thrillers!
And, yes, the movie with the same name is based on this book!
You can use this link to order the DVD The Day of the Jackal from amazon.com
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